Indian Seed creating mobile Mumbai murals to address social issues

MUMBAI | Inspired by her experiences on a Seeds of Peace program in Northern Ireland, an Indian Seed is working with classmates and local groups to raise awareness around social issues, including gender equality and female infanticide.

Mili, a 2009 Seed, launched the Bus Ho Gaya Project (“Enough is Enough”) earlier this year. The initiative brings together students and NGOs to paint public buses with messages highlighting a problem in order to change the way society thinks it.

“Alarming stories about the lack of gender equality in our city led us to choose women’s empowerment as our first theme,” says Mili.

The idea for the project began to grow last summer when Mili and 60 other Seeds met in Ireland. As part of the Game Changers program, Seeds formulated creative ways of solving issues in their own communities.

“As we roamed the city of Derry, I was drawn to a certain mural that I was told is repainted on a regular basis to represent the current political situation at any given time,” says the 17-year-old.

“As an art student, my mind began to race with ideas of evolving murals, and it was at this time that the thought of mobile murals first occurred to me.”

Mili worked with peers at the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai to launch the female infanticide campaign.

“It’s disturbing to know that, although the statistics are murky, it’s believed that three million girls have been killed in the last decade,” she says.

Mili’s project has gained wide notice through social media.

“I received a message from a group of students in Delhi who wanted to collaborate to take our project forward in their city as well.”

“I received a message from a group of students in Delhi who wanted to collaborate to take our project forward in their city as well.”

Comments

One Response to Indian Seed creating mobile Mumbai murals to address social issues

I think this is a wonderful initiative. I’m a part of the school and have seen this idea grow into something much bigger than what it was originally planned to be. Mili and all the others have worked very hard for this, and I think a project like this should not only be carried out in the particular school but throughout schools in India.